It has its pros and cons, but I support this. You still have the safe option to use the bloodwall, or you can risk going out and fighting mobs. The risk will come from the mobs themselves, competing for the spawns with other players, and the roving pvp gank squads that will no doubt be moving through. Low-level mobs might actually be pretty dangerous now, since lots of people will flock there for easy skill-up.

All the expansion content sounds good to me though. Hopefully they'll be increasing the drop rates for astrolabes and orbs of might to accommodate the "improved" naval warfare. And it's about time for melee and archery specializations!

I'll have to agree that the skill gain tweak seems like a good solution. I think we should still have the option of training with clanmates/friends if we so chose. Think about how parry would be a pain in the ass if you were constantly ganked. You also have to remember that the tweak is to get new players to come and stay, and not feel they have a 6 month grind in front of them to reach some of the veteran players levels.